In the interest of trying to carry one phone, what are the privacy concerns if I forward my normie number (Tracfone number I have had forever) to my Brax3 on Mint Mobile? Will that just completely identify and expose me?
It sounds like the Brax3 can not accommodate 2 sim cards as the designers had first planned, perhaps some issue with the FCC. Is my understanding correct?
But even if the Brax3 could use 2 physical sim cards simultaneously, if one of them was your historic normie number, would that not then identify your new Brax3 privacy phone as you and wreck your efforts of privacy? Is that how it would work?
It is challenging in an effort to be private, to know what bread crumbs you are leaving out in cyberspace, all the while unaware that you are doing it.
So in summary, in order to carry only one phone, is it privacy safe, to forward my normie number to the Mint Mobile number assigned to my Brax3 phone? Will I expose myself and wreck my privacy effort if I do? Is it better, more private to carry two phones?
I thought about forwarding to a voip number but sometimes I have had glitches using voip without the additional complication of stacking it with forwarding and these would be business activities that need to work smoothly.
I didn’t know what information would be exposed to the carrier or beyond. The carrier from my normie phone knows my name and a gmail address. Will that cause exposure and privacy concerns?
What adapter do I need to use so the smaller SIM card will fit into the SD card slot?
Would it be any different or perhaps better if I just forward my my normie number to my Brax3 phone? What changes in that scenario? or is that basically the same information that will be shared with the carrier? or perhaps worse because then they would also know the phone number that is attached to the Brax3.
Also Tracfone told me that I can’t swap the physical SIM into a different phone because that would cause a mismatch and system problems. I think that is just a “narrative” to get me to comply. Am I correct? Braxman shows SIM card swapping and a friend of my did it with his phones, I have just never had the need or opportunity before.
The carriers know what they should know legally for you, that doesn’t change, they also know your location when the SIM is active, nothing can be done for this too.
If you forward the number Tracfone will know that you are correlated to the new number but it won’t know your device or position, only the active SIM will have this information.
Forwarding will save you battery and you will get less radiated.
Maybe Tracfone keeps your IMEI and if you change device they block the phone but I doubt it and I have never heard of this again, in that case you either register Brax3 to Tracfone or change Brax3’s IMEI to be the same with the old device but it’s a lengthy process. Just test it with Brax3 or another device to see. You may need to configure the APN manually to get everything working.
Usually users buy a new SIM, now they come in adapter packages that can be transformed to all sizes. Else you can just cut it with a box cutter, you can find those plastic adapters from someone else or on the ground thrown away by someone so that you mark it and cut it at the correct position and size.
Its size and shape should be exactly the same with the SIM that fits in the regular slot but it is inserted in the SD slot in a different orientation and it fits.
Here you can see some adapters, your card’s size should be as the internal white space in the last one on the right, that is “nano”, you can use such an adapter to mark your SIM and cut it correctly,
Unless something changed in the new round of phones, the Brax3 can only have one physical sim and one e-sim. The original concept was for 2 physical sims but was changed to the above at production.
Indeed the tray marks one slot as SD and the other one as SIM, the nano-SIM doesn’t fit in the SD, the SIM pins under the SD slot are visible but probably aren’t connected.
Thank you all for the additional information to consider. Due to my schedule, it will take me a few days before I have time to do any additional experimentation. In the mean time any additional information or other people’s experience would be appreciated.
Also thanks to DBDigital and Tracfone the saga: Success! for your story and information, it gives me a trail to follow. I appreciate your time given.
Porting the number won’t completely expose you, but everyone that currently has that number and is tracking you via it will continue to do so. If that is not a problem by all means port it, but if the goal is to cut ties and be less visible then sticking with a new number on a new platform is the way to go.
And you are welcome with regard to the post I did. Glad it helped. I will offer one other bit of advise with regard to tracfone: if you decide to port the number be sure you unlock it via the website first. Otherwise it will fail.
Greetings. Thank you for the additional thoughts to consider as I build my Privacy world.
Could you give me more details regarding, tracfone: if you decide to port the number be sure you unlock it via the website first. Otherwise it will fail.
I’m not sure I fully understand and I don’t see on tracfone where to unlock it. Any ideas?
Sure can. Log in at tracfone, then in your dashboard, go to account/payment info
scroll down to security info/line lock
make sure your line is unlocked (it is in the form of a left and right flipping switch)
You also need the IMEI of your phone which is usually what they use for your “account number”.
You also need a one time PIN code. After making sure it is unlocked send a text
NTP to 611611
and sometimes it takes a while for this to arrive. 40 minutes or more I have heard.
This is the information you will need to give to the other carrier so they can port your number from Tracfone.
Oh you also might need to give the zip code that was first used when you opened the account. I have heard that is sometimes necessary. Also sometimes the IMEI is the IMEI of the first phone you used with Tracfone, but try the current one first, that usually works.
If you still have problems you can call Tracfone at their porting line 1-800-327-2077 but I would suggest trying to avoid that if you can because their customer service is hit or miss.
